Cooking Green

Okay, so we totally dropped the ball on the St. Patrick's Day green beer and soda bread thing. Me, I'm not Irish anymore. I thought I was until last year when I found out that my paternal grandfather wasn't an Irish osteopath, but an American conman who did time in Ohio State Pen then went on to have a less than glamourous career as an amateur boxer before moving to Canada and wooing my grandmother with various and assorted tales, none of which were true.

And though I did grow up in a household that served boiled potatoes and soda bread on a regular basis, I never managed to develop a taste for them. Besides, neither of them are green.

The green in this recipe comes mainly from cilantro. It's a bright leafy herb with a flavour that is either loved or hated. Me, I love it. It's crisp, sharp, and just tastes... fresh. Apparently something like 30% of the population thinks it tastes like soap. Those people need to look away. They can check out Taneasha's mac and cheese (contains green onion and served with asparagus), or try my lime (green!) and ginger scones.

Green leafy things are super healthy; they contain fibre, iron, magnesuim, anti-oxidants, and most importantly for this recipe: things that lower cholesterol. Which is good, because coconut milk contains yummy saturated fats.

Green Thai Curry

This recipe makes enough for two, maybe three, or two and a bit for lunch the next day, but the pics are of a double recipe, which I made and froze (so that I'd have food on hand during finals next month)

What you need:

(note to self: you need to remember to take pics of all the ingredients!!)

• 3 Thai chiles (um, or more if you like things really spicy. I like things really spicy)
• ¼ C red onion
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 inch chunk of ginger
• 1 stalk lemongrass
• ½ tsp ground coriander
• ½ tsp ground cumin
• ½ tsp ground black pepper
• 1 C cilantro (with stems)
• 3 ½ T fish sauce
• 1 T sugar
• 3 T lime juice

***

• 2 chicken breasts
• 1 tin (~15 oz) coconut milk
• 1 red bell chile
• 1 zucchini
• 1 chinese eggplant (the long, skinny, light purple ones)

What you gotta do: 

Remove the tougher outer leaves of the lemon grass, and slice the tender inner ones into rounds. Remove the stems from the little chiles, and coarsly chop the onion. You don't need to bother pre-chopping the garlic, or the cilantro.

Yes, that's more than three chiles. I said I like it very spicy.

Combine all of these, with the cilantro (pics! moar pics!) in the food processor.

Add the corriander, cumin, pepper, sugar, lime juice and fish sauce, and then whiz until it's a nice green paste.

If you're not familiar with fish sauce, here's a pic (yay pic!):

Fish sauce is a salty extract made mosty from anchovies. It contains no squid (as noted in the pic). It's a common seasoning in Thai and Vietnamese cuisines, and if it's not in the import foods section of your grocery, you can easily find it in Chinatown. And it's fragrant. Whatever you do, don't spill it. You'll spend days trying to figure out what that strange smell is, and then once you figure it out, you'll spend more days cleaning the freaking kitchen top to bottom because you missed wiping up a single freaking drop of fish sauce somewhere in there...

Um. Or maybe it's just me.

Dice the chicken, red chile, zucchini, and eggplant.

Heat a pan over medium with a small amount of oil. Add the paste and and fry it for a few minutes until it's fragrant.

Stir in the coconut milk. Bring to a simmer.

Add the chicken and veggies, and simmmer for about 20 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through, and the veggies are tender.

Now, since I was treating this as a make ahead meal, I filled medium sized freezer bags with enough for a dinner and lunch the next day in each one.

Then, I laid them flat in the freezer until they were solid, then stood them up like books on a shelf to save space. A double recipe gave me 4 dinners and 4 lunches in 4 bags.

A quick pot of rice, and a freezer bag of curry makes a delicious quick dinner.

Serve it with a bit of prik-nam-pla (a Thai condiment made from 2 parts water, 2 parts fish sauce, 1 part lime juice, 1 part sugar, a bit of garlic, and a bit of hot chile sauce), and if you've got fresh basil handy, it makes a great final topping.

Oh, and lemongrass from the grocery will root if you put it in water. Look for stalks with as much of the root intact as possible, put it in a jar of water with a drop of plant food, and in a few weeks, you'll be able to put it into the dirt and have fresh green lemon grass any time you want.

Yay for green food!

What's your favourite green food or grow at home food?



Enchiladas... sort of.

Well, my version of them, anyway.  I realize they are anything but traditional or authentic, but they are delicious, nonetheless.  Besides, I've never understood why you have to choose between meat and cheese in your enchilada when you go to a restaurant.  What's wrong with both?  And even a little veg?  

I thought I’d follow Seeley’s example this week, and not have a picture of the gathered ingredients.  Ok, so I was really just scatterbrained and forgot that part, but I like blaming what I can on her.  Here’s a list of what you’ll need:

Sauce:

• 3 Tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 Tablespoon flour
• ¼ cup chili powder
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 8 ounces tomato paste
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• ½ teaspoon salt
• Secret Ingredient (see below)

Filling:

• 1 Pound ground turkey breast
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• ½ cup prepared enchilada sauce
• 1 cup grated cheese

You will also need 6, 8 inch flour tortillas and an additional cup of grated cheese.

We’ll start with the sauce.  Enchilada sauce is a pretty simple thing to make.  In fact, I’m not really sure why someone would ever use the stuff in a can.  Then again, that’s frequently the case with me.   Here we go.  

In a saucepan, heat 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil.  When it’s hot, sprinkle in the flour. 

 

Stir it together and allow it to cook for about a minute before adding the chili powder.  The chili powder is where most of your flavor comes from, so it’s important to buy something good.  I really love the stuff you can get in the bulk section at Whole Foods. 

 

Stir that in and let it heat for about 30 seconds, then pour in the chicken stock.  Stir briskly, getting rid of any lumps and making sure nothing is stuck to the bottom of the pan.  Stir in the oregano, cumin, and salt, followed by the tomato paste.  I usually like to use a whisk at this point, to break up the lumps of tomato paste. 

 

Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring constantly, and boil for one minute.  Turn off the heat and continue to stir until the boiling stops.  Now for the secret ingredient. 

 

Yes, that’s chocolate.  A few squares of good dark chocolate bring a richness to the sauce.  Make sure it’s dark chocolate.  Milk chocolate, or even semi sweet, have too much sugar.  Break or cut the chocolate into pieces, and stir them into the sauce.  When they’re completely melted and incorporated, set the sauce aside and start on the filling. 

Heat a couple tablespoons of olive or vegetable oil in a pan and throw in your diced onion and bell pepper.  Sprinkle with a little salt to help them give up their liquid. 

 

Add the ground turkey and start chopping it into pieces as it cooks.

 

After the turkey is cooked through and the vegetables are soft, turn off the heat and stir in about ½ cup of the sauce.  It should look about like this:

 

Add 1 cup of the cheese and stir in until it’s incorporated.  Yes, I used already grated stuff this time, I was being lazy, and the pre-grated stuff was on sale.  Thank you, Tillamook, for doing the work for me.  It really is better if you grate your own, though. 

 

This is probably a good time to preheat your oven to 350°.  Also, coat the bottom of a 9x13 pan with a thin layer of sauce. 

 

Lay a tortilla in the pan and scoop in a line of the meat mixture.  I was using whole wheat tortillas, which is why they look a little on the brown side. 

 

Roll it up, somewhat tightly, and place it seam side down at the end of the pan. 

 

Repeat.

Do the rest of them the same way, coating the outside of the tortilla with the sauce, rolling them up, and sliding them right up against each other.  The last one or two are a little more difficult, but you have to kind of slide the tortilla through the sauce in the little space that’s left.  When they’re all filled and rolled, six of them should fit perfectly in the pan. 

 

Throw them in the oven for about 15 minutes, or until the tortillas become crispy on the top and ends. 

 

Top them with the remaining sauce and cheese.

 

Put them back into the oven just long enough for the cheese to melt; probably about 7 – 10 minutes.

 

Top each with a dollop of sour cream.  You could put half an olive in there like they do at some Mexican restaurants, but I don’t like olives.  Besides, it's pretty obvious I’m not trying to replicate what you might find at El Taco Gordo*.  Try my version of enchiladas and let me know what you think. 

 

*El Taco Gordo was just something I made up off the top of my head.  You know how they all have silly names like that.  If your favorite Mexican place is, indeed, called El Taco Gordo, I have not been stalking you.  It was just a lucky guess.